The Bush Administration's Anti-Torture Team and Their Anti-Torture Memos

Last week, Mother Jonesreported that Philip Zelikow, the Counselor to the State Department in the Bush administration, suspects that Dick Cheney was behind an order to "collect and destroy" all copies of an anti-torture memo he wrote. Zelikow also told Mother Jones about the existence of other memos arguing against torture. Two of those memos were released at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing this morning, where Zelikow testified about the existence of a small group of dissidents—himself, state department legal adviser John Bellinger, and Gordon England, the deputy secretary of defense, among others—who tried to get the administration to change its detainee treatment policies in 2005 and 2006. You can read about the memos and Zelikow's testimony here.

Nick Baumann covers national politics and civil liberties issues for
Mother Jones' DC Bureau. For more of his stories, click here. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Email tips and insights to nbaumann [at] motherjones [dot] com. RSS | Twitter